Close to the Exit

Tu Ran led the two along the base of the wall, crouched low, trying to stay unnoticed by the aberrations while staying alert to the gun and artillery emplacements around them, ready for any sudden swivel in their direction.

Who knew if those outdated systems might mistake them for aberrations and lob a shell their way? An aberration could shrug off a direct hit with its thick hide, but mere flesh and blood like them wouldn't survive that.

Every step required caution.

They made it more than halfway without incident, and finally got a clear view of the exit—there it was, a huge flat mirror.

Tu Ran's relief was short-lived. She could see in the mirror's reflection a whole swarm of aberrations, of every conceivable kind, packed together.

They'd all sheltered here.

This spot was probably an underground passage's exit, with no gun emplacements overhead; the bullets and bombs elsewhere couldn't easily reach this place. The aberrations weren't stupid—being shot didn't kill them, but it hurt—and they'd figured out this was the safest pocket, so they'd crowded in.

A few were scuffling over territory, but most simply lay low and still.

Tu Ran's scalp prickled. At this rate, there was no way they could slip past this mob to get out.

"What do we do?" Min Tao stared at the aberrations, grip tightening on his gun. "Want me to draw them off?"

"They probably won't be drawn to you—outside is a hail of bullets, and they don't like pain either." Tu Ran thought for a moment, pulled out a demolition round, yanked the pin, and hurled it over.

The distance was long, but the moment the round hit the ground, it detonated.

The three flattened themselves against the wall, shielding from the blast wave.

The mirror shattered in a torrent of crackling shards, mingling with the aberrations' whining screeches.

Tu Ran cautiously lifted her head to look, and nearly lost her jaw—a demolition round that powerful, and it hadn't even blown that swarm apart.

Even the few aberrations that had been battling for territory moments ago had gone stock-still now, warily glancing every direction, united on the same side.

Thick-skinned indeed.

But the mirror behind them had been blasted to bits, revealing the passage beyond.

One of the aberrations noticed it and tentatively crawled in.

Tu Ran's heart seized up. Was the exit really just covered by a single mirror? Did the passage run wide open?

Two aberrations slipped in—one ape-like, one a Heluo—and just as a third tried to squeeze in, it couldn't; the passage was plugged solid.

Tu Ran exhaled in relief. There must be another door inside blocking the way.

The demolition round hadn't scattered them; instead, it had let them cram into the passage. When they opened the door and left, these things might just follow them out.

That was a problem. Right on cue, her communicator buzzed twice.

A message from Xie Xu.

"I've cut all surveillance in the passage's vicinity. Use your ability freely."

Tu Ran: "..."

So he didn't have access to that door's controls after all. She'd have to rely on her own power.

"If I use my ability to escape, I'll carry the aberrations behind us out too."

Xie Xu replied quickly: "It's the aberrations escaping on their own. You're just tagging along with them."

Tu Ran: "..." When it came to brains, Xie Xu was unmatched.

"Got it."

She pocketed the communicator, took a closer look at the exit situation, then pulled out two smoke grenades and tossed them in.

White smoke spread rapidly among the aberrations, swallowing their undulating silhouettes, hiding everything inside from outside view.

"Stay close. Move." Tu Ran left a low whisper and was the first to rise, stepping into the thick white fog.

They kept hugging the wall, and once inside the smoke, Tu Ran slowed her steps to make sure the two behind kept up.

In the blinding white haze, the floor was strewn with broken mirror shards; stepping on them was unavoidable and made a sound.

The three of them crept in dread.

Fortunately, some aberrations were moving about too, so their sporadic noise was drowned out.

At last they turned into the passage, and all they had to do now was get past that ape-like aberration and the Heluo.

Tu Ran's visor displayed the approximate positions of the two creatures in the smoke. The Heluo was very close—its eight tentacles spread like a spider's web across the entire passage, and right before them two tentacles, one high and one low, barred their path.

The visor auto-measured the distance between the tentacles: 1.45 meters.

The lowest tentacle's clearance from the ground: 0.65 meters.

The width of one Heluo tentacle: 0.35 meters.

Not too hard to squeeze through. They'd drilled maneuvers like this countless times at base—so long as their footfalls were light enough, the Heluo wouldn't notice.

The Heluo was now tearing up from the smoke, and could shift its tentacle angles at any second.

Strike while the iron is hot; there is no second chance.

Without hesitation, Tu Ran compacted her machine gun, shrank her profile, tucked her head forward, and lunged through, moving like a lithe fish, tumbling once on the floor, landing soft and silent.

Min Tao and Shen Yunhe followed close behind.

This hurdle was nothing for them.

The Heluo didn't even register that three humans had just slipped past its limbs.

Next, the ape-like aberration.

From the notes Xi Chunzhi had given her, Tu Ran recalled some of its traits.

They were clever—the highest-intelligence, most human-like of all aberration species, good at forming cliques, fluent communicators with other aberrations, but physically weak and with duller senses. In most groups, they served as the strategists.

Through the trio's visors, the hulking ape aberration was now clawing at the seam of the metal door, gripping a piece of metal scrap it had pried from somewhere, scraping and prying at the gap—clearly trying to force it open.

Tu Ran wasn't sure whether to call it smart or stupid.

Stupid? It knew to use a metal sheet to jimmy the door open, a level of intelligence far above the other aberrations just standing outside catching bullets.

Smart? A tiny scrap of metal to pry open a human-made security door? That was daydreaming.

The smoke grenades had burnt out; the haze would dissipate soon. They had to hurry.

Tu Ran looked back and signaled Shen Yunhe and Min Tao to stay put. She moved in on the ape from the side.

She needed just a gap, nothing more than enough to press her palm against.

From the visor's analysis, there was an open space at the lower right corner of the metal door, occupied only by the ape's tail.

Tu Ran made a beeline for it, but once she was within a meter, the swaying, pumping tail got in her way.

The tail was working along with its master's upper body, rising and falling with no pattern, but it blocked the whole path tight.